EDL Delivery For Sound: Sound Editor Tells All by David Grecu Fixable and Unfixable Problems Ah, fall is upon us again. Soon the daylight hours will wane, the leaves will change (sort of), and TV production will resume in earnest- which of course means... EDL problems. For sound purposes, an EDL is a blueprint, used by various "auto-assembly" programs, that tells an audio workstation what to digitize. This process is similar to an on-line session, or to digitizing in the Avid. Any erroneous or useless information can cause time- consuming search-and-rescue missions for the sound crew. The most common "pesky" problems stem from erroneous sound information entered into flex files and lab rolls. However, as long as everything is in sync, the unsuspecting assistant will digitize as usual - and pass along a tiny time-bomb for sound. With a little detective work, we can usually follow the paper trail, deduce the correct take, and sync it manually. However, some problems and omissions of information are so overwhelming that they cannot be fixed by the sound crew in a reasonable time frame. Reel ID's The basic rule is: An EDL for sound must always refer to the sound roll number (and its corresponding timecode) that your sound facility will use for re-digitizing. This means that the Reel ID#'s in the EDL must be the Sound Roll #'s. It follows that the source timecode must be the timecode on those sound rolls. No matter what kind of project you are working on. Sound obvious? More than once I've received an EDL with lab roll numbers and timecode. Completely useless! If your production mixer is making simultaneous recordings on another medium (back-up DATs or Ž") the timecode on both media should be the same. (Please tell me it has timecode, right?) If they are not the same, there is going to be trouble when the sound editors try to re-digitize using erroneous or non-existing timecode. Try to make sure the telecine house is using the same source the sound house will use. Clip Name The other piece of information that is essential to include in the EDL is the clip name. Auto-assembly programs also use this field in the EDL to automatically name each clip with the scene and take #. It also makes the hard copy of the EDL a useful document as opposed to, say, hieroglyphics. Therefore, you should always check "clip name" in the EDL manager. Disk and EDL File Format The last essential items to know are: 1) floppy disk format and 2) EDL list format. ProTools will need a Macintosh disk, Studioframe and Fairlight will need an IBM/DOS format disk. As for the EDL, all three of those systems use the lowly CMX-3600 file format. The most common problem I've seen is a good EDL delivered on the wrong format disk, or in a file format that is unreadable. Nice try! Patching Info Now for a gray area. Unless they are told otherwise, all auto-assembly programs assume that whatever is on track 1 of your sequence came from audio Ch.1 of a production sound roll. Similarly, it is assumed that whatever is on track 2 of your sequence came from Ch.2 of production audio. This gets to be a problem in auto-assembly when there is radically different information on production Ch.1 and 2. For instance, perhaps production Ch.1 was music playback, but for convenience was relegated to Avid track 2 (with some edits). Dialogue was recorded on production Ch.2, but was put on track 1 of the Avid with the rest of the production dialogue. Unless this track information is contained in the EDL, the initial sound auto-assembly will be FUBAR, with the dialog edits applied to the music track and vice versa. There are two ways a picture assistant can help. The safest is to ensure that Ch.1 of production audio remains on track 1 of your sequence, and that Ch.2 goes to track 2. Nevertheless, audio overlaps (putting Ch.1 audio on track 2) are a frequent necessity. That is why "patching info" should always be checked off in EDL Manager Options, especially when creating the hard copy of the EDL. Even if the auto-assembly software at the sound house can't read that info off the EDL disk, the hard copy is there to explain the situation. Make a test EDL disk with patching info in it and send it to your sound crew. If it works, their lives just got a lot easier. Even if it doesn't, they will appreciate the effort. Optimize List When creating the EDL disk, I've found that this option can hurt more than help, so it's wiser to leave this option unchecked. Smart auto-assembly programs will optimize the list themselves, combining events in the way best for that program. However, I would check it off for the hard copy because it makes it shorter, easier to read, and quicker to print. Thanks to David Crabtree at 'NYPD Blue' for great lists and Dave Whittaker for ProTools advice.   David Grecu has been a feature and TV dialog editor for seven years and works at Miles O'Fun Inc. He trained on the Avid Media Composer this summer. You can reach him at: bethdavid@earthlink.net   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 19, No. 5 - September/October 1998   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 776